The paper deals with extensive monitoring of a solar thermal parabolic dish system. It was carried at the outdoor development center HEnergia of HERA S. p.A. in Forli (Italy). HEnergia has a small-scale parabolic dish of 11.5 kW thermal peak which has been realized with a commercial concentrating unit. Parabolic dish plant is remotely monitored and data on environmental conditions, module temperature, cooling fluid flowrate and temperatures and thermal power production are continuously acquired and stored by a PC. Parabolic dish plant performance can be measured on-site and compared in relation to different environmental conditions. On the basis of experimental data, the paper also shows a simplified method to evaluate parabolic dish performance. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.